Safety razor blade structure and holder for same



A. w. FRANRU SAFETY RAZOR BLADE STRUCTURE AND HOLDER FOR SAME 'Filed y10, 1955 w 4 mw 5 TORNEYS Patented May 21, 1935 t UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE SAFETY RAZOR BLADE STRUCTURE AND HOLDER FOR SAME Albert W.Franklin, New York, N. Y. Application May 10, 1933, Serial No. 670,259

7 Claims. (01. 30-12) This invention relates to improvements inopen-position showing a portion of the blade safety razors of the typeemploying in combinabroken away, and a portion in cross section; tion aholder and a blade, as well as the method Fig. 12 isa perspective viewof the double edge of manufacturing the blade. blade made from a thinpiece of steel;

This invention involves in combination a mul- Fig. 13 is a perspectiveview of a modified form 5 tiple edge blade and a holder thereforcooperof double edge blade made from a solid piece of ating to hold theblade therein in correct shaving steel. position and for successivelysevering the blades The broad object of this invention is to provide asthey become dull. a multiple edge shaving blade and a holder there- Afurther object of this invention is to provide for. The form of thedevice shown in Figs. 1 to 10 a blade unit comprising a plurality ofindividual 8 inclusive involves a blade unit made from 9. blades incombination with a holder havin insingle St ip of Steel, and having a pa ty of dexin'g means for the blades, and cutting means knife bladeswhich may be individually and sucfor successively severing the bladesfrom the unit cessively separated from the unit as they become 15 asthey become dull. dull with use. The blade unit, as illustrated in i5 Afurther object of this invention is to provide Fig. 6 is merelyillustrative of the general struca novel method of manufacturing theblade units. ture thereof which may, of course, be varied in A furtherobject of this invention is to provide many ways. For example, the bladeunit may a multiple edge safety razor blade and a holder comprise asmany individual blades as desired,

therefor. and may take other forms without departure 20 A stillfurtherobject of the invention is to profrom the invention. Such a blade unitemployed vide in combination a safety razor blade having in the holderof this invention presents the cuta plurality of cutting edgespositioned to contact ting edges successively and individually forshavthe surface of the face simultaneously and a holding operations.When the blade unit is clamped er therefor. V in the holder it isindexed therein by indexing 25 These and many other objects, as willappear lugs which cooperate with holes in the-unit. As from thefollowing disclosure, are secured by the holder is tightened down on theblade the means of this invention. blade edge which is exposed isseparated from This invention resides substantially in the the unit sothat when the holder is opened the combination, construction,arrangement, relative detached blade is free to be discarded. At this 30location of parts, steps and series of steps in acpoint it can bementioned that an object of this cordance with the following descriptiontaken in invention is to provide multiple edge blade units connectionwith the attached drawing. which are so inexpensive thatthey may beread- Referring to the drawing, ily discarded after one shave.

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of the safety Referring to. thedrawing in detail, one suit- 35 razor holder of this invention with theblade in able form of holder for the blade unit of this place; 7invention comprises a handle I having its upper 2 is an end elevationalview thereof; end provided with threads 2 which cooperate with Fig. 3 isa vertical central transverse cross secthreads in the yoke 4 formedintegral with the 40 tional view with a portion of the handle brokencover plate 3. This yoke 4 is connected t t 40 away; cover plate at itsends in the manner shown so Fig. 4 is a bottom plan view of a portion ofthe as to be spaced therefrom. Cooperating with the holder; cover plate3 is a guard plate 5 of any suitable Fig. 5 is an end elevational viewthereof; construction and having the notched edges as is Fig. 6isaplanview of the blade unit composed common in safety razors. The guard plate5 45 of a plurality of knife blades; is provided with a centraldepending pin 6 which Fig. '7 is a cross sectional view thereof takenfits within a recess or bore in the handle I. In On the li of thisarrangement it will be apparent that as the Fig. 8 is a cross sectionalview thereof taken handle I is revolved the guard and cover plates 0 onthe line 88 of Fig. 6; are moved towards each other until they firmlyFig. 9 diagrammatically illustrates the method clamp between them theblade unit. The cover o Sharpening the knife blades of the unit; plateis shown with a pair of spaced depending Fig. 10 is a perspective viewof a modified holdluge 8 positioned so as to engage openings inthe erand blade having a. plurality of cutting edges; blade unit, to properlylock the unit with respect Fig. 11 is an inside plan view of the holderin to the guard plate to insure an accurate shave. 55

and hence serve as indexing means for the blade. It is apparent, ofcourse, that these lugs may equally well appear on the guard plate, aswell as on the cover plate, and more than one pair of them may beemployed if desired.

The end surface of the cover plate is likewise provided with a recesswhich has been indicated as a continuous groove I extending all the waythereacross. Formed on the guard plate are a pair of lugs or postspreferably with reduced edges so as to form cutting surfaces which arepositioned so as to be in alignment with the groove i. It is of courseapparent that the groove I and the lug 9 may be reversed so as to appearon the guard plate and cover plate respectively without departure fromthe invention. It is likewise apparent that the groove 1 may appear asmerely two recesses or depressions opposite the cutting lugs 9. Theaction of the cuttinglugs will be described after the blade unit hasbeen described in detail.

Referring to Figs. 6, '7 and 8 the blade unit is shown comprising astrip of suitable:s teel or its equivalent I0, which is transverselyslotted intermediate its edges as indicated at l 2 to define knifecutting blades, the edges of which may be sharp ened to form the shavingedge as indicated at I3. The slits I2 terminate in openings l I, asshown. The edges of the strip are notched, as at l4, adjacent theopenings ll so that each individual blade is attached to the unit by a-very narrow strip of metal with the result-that thepoint of connectionof each blade with the unit is materially weakened. As will be apparent,the holes II are provided so thatthe indexing'lugs 8 will seat thereinwhen the blade is clamped in place. The lugs are of course positioned sothat when the unit is clamped in the holder: the first cutting edgewillbe properly positioned with respect to the guard plate in accordancewith well established and necessary precision to insure correct shavingaction. The cutting lugs 9 are positioned so as to contact with theblade unit in the axis of each pair of notches so that they will applythe necessary shearing action to sever the exposed blade from the unit..Obviously, these points will be so proportioned that the blade to beseveredjwill be sufliciently clamped in the holder at the time severingoccurs so that it will be accurately positioned for shaving as the bladeis firmly clamped in the holder.

The conditions may be met by properly positioning the various partsinvolved, as well as by the curvature of the holder and of the guardplate and cover plate. Thus as the blade unit is clamped into the holderthe blade with the exposed edge is automatically clamped in place andsevered from the unit. Before this occurs the indexing lugs 8 properlyposition the entire unit and with it the blade with the exposed edge.After the shaving operationwhen the blade is released for cleaning anddrying the severed blade may be discarded. Obviously, it need notnecessarily be discarded since it can be slipped in place and accuratelypositioned against the indexing lugs. It is of course apparent that thesevering action can easily be accomplished with this device since thesteel .from which such blades are made may easily be tempered so that itis hard enough to crack across the narrow bridge adjacent the notches.

- The blade unit can be constructed fromlong strips or rolls of steelwhich have been slotted, perforated and notched to provide substantiallythe form shown in Fig. 6, before the strip is tempered. These operationsobviously may be accomplished in a continuous process and by a simplesimultaneous punching operation. Obviously the individual punchingoperations may be carried out in sequence if desired. The punching andslitting may occur in groups so as to divide the strip into individualgroups comprising as many blades as desired. In that case the rear edgeof the unit may be straight as indicated in Fig. 6 or it may be U-shapedin accordance with the rear edge of each blade, as desired.

The strip after tempering may then be fed through a grinding machine toalternately grind the edges of each blade as diagrammaticallyillustrated in Fig. 9. At I5 is shown one portion of a die or tool whichforces one or more of the individual blades out or the plane of the unitsufficiently so that one edge thereof may be ground by means of thegrinding wheel IS. The unit and wheel are transversely moved withrespect to each other so that the entire edge may be ground. Bymodifications apparent to those skilled in the art more than one edgemay be ground at once if desired. As the strip advances to exposesuccessively one side of the blades for grinding at a lighter or earlierstation, a similar tool l5 may oscillate on the opposite side of thestrip to force the blades outwardly to the right so that a similargrinding wheel or its 1 equivalent may be employed to finish the otheredge-of each blade. Obviously, these operations may be carried out in acontinuous process in which, while the edges of one or more of eachblade are being ground on one side, the edges of one or more ofthe'preceding or subsequent blades may be ground on the other side.Preferably, of course, as is apparent, the blade units need not besevered from the strip until after the edges are ground, althoughobviously, if desired the units may be severed from the strip and thenground.

Figs. 10 to 13 inclusive show a. modified form of device in which amultiple edge blade is employed. In this case the holder comprises ahandle it having a U-shaped spring clip i1 secured to one end thereof.Clamped between the arms of this clip are the guard and cover plates l8and i9 which are hingedly secured together at their ends by means of apivot pin or rod 2| extending therebetween Pivotally mounted on thepivot pin 2| is a spacing member 20 which consists of a rectangularblock of suitable material having a centrally located, transverselyprojecting portion 20' through which the pivot pin passes. The form ofblade adapted for use with this holder is shown in Fig. 12 This blade 30is made from a thin piece of steel which has a. rectangular centralopening forming the straps 32 when the piece of steel is bent into theU-shaped opening the guard and cover plates out substantially flat. Theblade is then slipped over the pivot pin and is positioned so that theportion 20' of the spacing member liesbetween the straps 32. The partsare then pivoted back to cutting edges too close together.

the position shown in Fig. 10 and gripped in the clamp H. The spacingmember 20 is provided to insure that the edges of the blades will beheld in the proper spaced relation.

Obviously there are many other equivalent ways of preventing the holderfrom forcing the In Fig. 13 there is shown a double edge solid plate 34which is ground to provide the two cutting edges 35' properly placed asdescribed in connection with the blade of Fig. 12. Obviously the spacingmember 20 of the holder need not be used with a blade of this type.

From the above description it will be apparent that this inventionresides in certain principles of construction and certain methods whichmay be readily varied by those skilled in the art without departure fromthe scope of the invention. I do not therefore desire to be strictlylimited to the disclosure as given for purposes of illustration, butrather to the scope of the appended claims.

What I seek tosecure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. A multiple safety razor blade of the type described comprising a thinband of tempered steel provided with regularly spaced transverse slotsterminating short of the side edges thereof, the corresponding edge ofeach slot being sharpened, and the outer side'edges of the strip beingnotched in transverse alignment with each transverse slot to providezones of weakness.

2. A multiple safety razor blade of the type described comprising a thinband of tempered steel provided with regularly spaced transverse slotsterminating short of the side edges thereof, the

corresponding edge of each slot being sharpened, and the outer sideedges of the strip being notched in transverse alignmentwith eachtransverse slot to provide zones of weakness, and each transverse slotbeing enlarged at its end to provide blade indexing means.

3. A safety razor combination as described comprising a holder, amovable clamping mem 4. A safety razor of the type described comprisingthe combination with a holder, a clamping plate, means for securing theclamping plate to the holder, and two pair of cooperating breaking meansmounted in opposed relation on the holder and clamping plate, of a bladehaving a plurality of sharpened edges thereon all facing in onedirection, said blade being held between the holder and clamping plateso that only one sharpened edge is exposed for shaving and engageable bythe breaking means when the plate is clamped in place to successivelysever the previously used portion of the blade therefrom.

5. A safety razor or the type described comprising the combination witha holder, a clamping plate, means for securing the clamping plate to theholder, and two pair of cooperating breaking means mounted in opposedrelation on the holderv and clamping plate, of a blade having aplurality of sharpened edges thereon all facing in one direction andheld between the holder and clamping plate to expose one sharpened edgeonly and engageable by the breaking means when the plate is clamped inplace to successively sever the previously used portions of the bladetherefrom, said blade having weakened portions engageable by thebreaking means.

6. In a safety razor the combination with a holder comprising a pair ofclamping plates,

means for clamping them together, and breaking means formed on saidplates, of a blade consista ing of a strip having more than two cuttingedges thereon all facing in one direction and perforations bordering thesides of the strip adjacent the cutting edges, whereby when the strip isclamped between said plates the breaking means engages it adjacent theperforations to break a portion having a cutting edge from the stripwhich is simultaneously clamped between the plates. Y

'7. A safety razor blade structure comprising a strip of steel having aplurality of successively disposed, transversely extending slots to forma series of cutting edges, all of said edges presenting in the samedirection the transverse slots terminating within the side edges of thesteel strip, the side edges of said strip being formed with inwardlyextending notches disposed in transverse line with the edge formingslots to permit ready severance of the successive blades from saidstrip.

ALBERT W. FRANKLIN.

